Hello all wood enthusiasts. Not technically a woodworking question but hopefully someone can point me in the right direction as to what this piece may be.
I pulled this piece from under the house during renovation - the house is a Victorian workers cottage built circa 1886 (Melbourne) and when restumping, this piece was lying in the dirt supporting several original redgum stumps. So am thinking it was old in the 1880's. Not photographed is an old nail in the timber which google tells me is a hand forged nail which supports the date.
Is about 2m in length, has mortice and tenon joins on both sides and appears to have been chiseled down to taper out at the top and bottom. Found lots of interesting bits and pieces while digging around the house but the origin of this one is interesting!